Buying a Bike

Hi,

I'm new to the board. Can someone please give me an idea as to what I should be looking for exactly when buying a bike? What differentiates a "good" bike from a not-so-good one? If there are any really good links that go over this subject I'd appreciate that, as well.

My cousin and I have a limited budget (him more than I) and he insists on buying this bike:

I fully understand the term, "you get what you pay for", and I'd like to tell him that, but I've got to admit that telling him to spend $100 (or more) dollars on another bike would be kind of an ignorant demand on my behalf. We are not frequent riders; this is a weekend-only type thing.

So my question is this:

- Would a bike such as the one in the above link be "good enough"?

- Can you give me reason(s) why one should -not- buy this bike?

Would spending a few more bucks make any sense in our case? When we do in fact ride, it's never a short distance; but we don't ride often.

Yup we all agree Walmart bikes are pretty good for occasional use, and their fine employees are mostly dedicated, hard working people trying to make it through another hard day, just like the rest of us.

If that was not your intended meaning, I will kindly refer you to my last post in this thread, and remind you the South Park weather service has issued a smug alert for your immediate area That's an ugly, hurtful thread.

Disclaimer: I'll be the first to admit I am a bad person in many ways. I drink rum. I have evil thoughts. I jack off. I drive an imperfect bicycle. I procrastinate. But I do not belittle people because of where they work, their employment "status" or what they produce at work, as they are following orders. I am not mean to people. Mean people suck.